Description

Book Synopsis
"Finding the young Angélique on their doorstep one Christmas Eve, the pious Hubert couple decide to bring her up as their own. As the girl grows up in the vicinity of the town’s towering cathedral and learns her parents’ trade of embroidery, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the lives of the saints, a passion fuelled by her reading of the Golden Legend and other mystical Christian writings. One day love, in the shape of Felicien Hautecoeur, enters the dream world she has constructed around herself, bringing about upheaval and distress. Although it provides a detailed portrait of provincial nineteenth-century life and adheres to a naturalist approach, The Dream eschews many of the characteristics of Zola’s other novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle – such as a pronounced polemical agenda or a gritty subject matter – offering instead a timeless, lyrical tale of love and innocence."

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I consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh

The Dream: Annotated edition with a forward by

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    A Paperback / softback by Émile Zola, Andrew Brown

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      Book details

      Publisher Alma Classics
      Published 20 June 2013
      ISBN-13 9781847493118
      978-1847493118
      ISBN-10 1847493114
      Also in:
      Classics Religious & Spiritual Fiction Emile Zola Books by Emile Zola

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      "Finding the young Angélique on their doorstep one Christmas Eve, the pious Hubert couple decide to bring her up as their own. As the girl grows up in the vicinity of the town’s towering cathedral and learns her parents’ trade of embroidery, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the lives of the saints, a passion fuelled by her reading of the Golden Legend and other mystical Christian writings. One day love, in the shape of Felicien Hautecoeur, enters the dream world she has constructed around herself, bringing about upheaval and distress. Although it provides a detailed portrait of provincial nineteenth-century life and adheres to a naturalist approach, The Dream eschews many of the characteristics of Zola’s other novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle – such as a pronounced polemical agenda or a gritty subject matter – offering instead a timeless, lyrical tale of love and innocence."

      Trade Review
      I consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh

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